George Zavershinskiy
Physicist : Nuclear Scientist : Priest : Author
Amid Cold War tensions, a gifted nuclear physicist - poised to become the future father of new weapons - shockingly gains religious faith. Seeking to confess this revelation, he enters the priesthood, finding purpose but facing myriad trials.
His startling 1970s conversion from secret Soviet weapon scientist to devout priest elicits incomprehension and suspicion on all sides. Colleagues shun him as studies now intermix seminary training with Siberia's nuclear work. His transfer to a lowly role with barred access quashes the prestige of high-stakes research. Friends and family largely abandon the zealous convert, except for his steadfast wife and parents.
Ostracized yet undaunted, Father Alexander persists in his ecclesiastical calling even unto Chernobyl's radioactive inferno, ministering to desperate liquidators staring mortality in the face. There, on the fourth block, he was given a nickname - 'Atomic Shepherd'. Upon returning to Moscow, few of them will reach old age.
The 'Atomic Shepherd' is the last to leave among his spiritual friends - he still has time to complete his confession.
PRAISE FOR
ATOMIC SHEPHERD
The BookViral Review:
(reviewed in its English translation)
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With an absorbing premise and interesting speculation, ‘Atomic Shepherd’ is a book about the relationships between science and spirituality, and how disaster not only touches the outward shell of a person but also the inner man.
George Zavershinskiy takes his reader back to a time when scientific discovery sought to shape the atom, harnessing its vast and monstrous power for the benefit of humankind. However, when the breakdown of harmonious science results in the great Chornobyl disaster, Zavershinskiy’sprotagonist questions not only the efforts of science at playing God but also his complicity in its eventual downfall. New to religious doctrine, faith and the belief in reparation to our Creator, his journey takes him not only on a private pilgrimage but ripples out in influence, drawing his spouse, work colleagues and friends into a philosophical arena of purpose, blame and redemption.
As the effects of their decisions lay heavily on minds and wreak havoc with bodies, each character faces their evident mortality and their conviction of what may be beyond. Zavershinskiy crafts them well, presenting them as players in each other’s outcomes, as one by one they face their inevitable fate. Purporting the idea that the atomic material itself served to shape minds and hearts as surely as it destroyed tissue and blood, one is left with a disquieting feeling, not just of disaster, but of new beginnings, albeit in a grumbling and fading body, giving birth to a new era of faith and hope.
Despite not being written in Zavershinskiy’s mother tongue, his narrative remains compelling and reflects an authenticity consistent with its storyline, thus drawing the reader into the setting and period effortlessly. His attention to detail and dogged insistence on an accurate portrayal of the Chornobyl catastrophe shapes his words with fascinating reality, supported by some surprisingly lovely descriptive passages.
Conceptually interesting, with a fascinating hypothesis, ‘Atomic Shepherd’ will appeal to those with a bent towards philosophy and theology.
